Okay, you probably saw my thread earlier this year documenting a strange, rare bug my brother's Windows 7 > 8 upgrade encountered, where none of the stock apps (aside from PC settings, which works at least) installed at all, and the Store wouldn't launch because of some strange "license"-related error (which I find hard to believe).

Will there be a way to install 8.1 without Windows Store? I know they did service packs through Windows Update, and they also had "standalone" installers as well for deployment. Will 8.1 continue with this tradition?